How adverbs are formed - Easy Learning Grammar Spanish

1The basic rules

In English, adverbs that tell you how something happened are often formed by adding -ly to an adjective, for example, sweet → sweetly. In Spanish, you form this kind of adverb by adding -mente to the feminine singular form of the adjective.

Masculine adjective

Feminine adjective

Adverb

Meaning

lento

lenta

lentamente

slowly

normal

normal

normalmente

normally

Habla muy lentamente.

He speaks very slowly.

¡Hazlo inmediatamente!

Do it immediately!

Normalmentellego a las nueve.

I normally arrive at nine o’clock.

Note that adverbs NEVER change their endings in Spanish to agree with anything.

TipYou don’t have to worry about adding or removing accents on the adjective when you add -mente; they stay as they are.

fácil easy

→

fácilmente easily

Grammar Extra!When there are two or more adverbs joined by a conjunction such as y (meaning and) or pero (meaning but), leave out the -mente ending on all but the last adverb.

Lo hicieronlentaperoeficazmente.

They did it slowly but efficiently.

Use the form recién rather than recientemente (meaning recently) before a past participle (the form of the verb ending in -ado and -ido in regular verbs).

In Spanish, adverbs ending in -mente are not as common as adverbs ending in -ly in English. For this reason, you will come across other ways of expressing an adverb in Spanish, for example, con used with a noun or de manera used with an adjective.

Conducecon cuidado.

Drive carefully.

Todos estos cambios ocurrende manera natural.

All these changes happen naturally.

2Irregular adverbs

The adverb that comes from bueno (meaning good) is bien (meaning well). The adverb that comes from malo (meaning bad) is mal (meaning badly).

Hablabienel español.

He speaks Spanish well.

Está muymalescrito.

It’s very badly written.

Additionally, there are some other adverbs in Spanish which are exactly the same as the related masculine singular adjective:

alto (adjective: high, loud; adverb: high, loudly)

El avión volabaaltosobre las montañas.

The plane flew high over the mountains.

Pepe habla muyalto.

Pepe talks very loudly.

bajo (adjective: low, quiet; adverb: low, quietly)

El avión volaba muybajo.

The plane was flying very low.

¡Hablabajo!

Speak quietly.

barato (adjective: cheap; adverb: cheaply)

Aquí se come muybarato.

You can eat really cheaply here.

claro (adjective: clear; adverb: clearly)

Lo oí muyclaro.

I heard it very clearly.

derecho (adjective: right, straight; adverb: straight)

Vinoderechohacia mí.

He came straight towards me.

fuerte (adjective: loud, hard; adverb: loudly, hard)

Habla muyfuerte.

He talks very loudly.

No lo golpees tanfuerte.

Don’t hit it so hard.

rápido (adjective: fast, quick; adverb: fast, quickly)

Conduces demasiadorápido.

You drive too fast.

Lo hice tanrápidocomo pude.

I did it as quickly as I could.

Note that, when used as adverbs, these words do NOT agree with anything.

For more information on words which can be both adjectives and adverbs, see Common adverbs.

Grammar Extra!Sometimes an adjective is used in Spanish where in English we would use an adverb.

Esperabanimpacientes.

They were waiting impatiently.

Vivieron muyfelices.

They lived very happily.

Note that these Spanish adjectives describe the person or thing being talked about and therefore MUST agree with them.

Often you could equally well use an adverb or an adverbial expression in Spanish.

Esperabanimpacientementeorcon impaciencia.

They were waiting impatiently.

Key points

To form adverbs that tell you how something happens, you can usually add -mente to the feminine singular adjective in Spanish.

Adverbs don’t agree with anything.

Some Spanish adverbs are irregular, as in English.

Some Spanish adverbs are identical in form to their corresponding adjectives; when used as adverbs, they never agree with anything.